Prison Break Recap
Got a much better mark than expected on my last paper and midterm, so of course I celebrated by binge-watching Prison Break, although at this point I'm watching less because of "I have to see what happens next" reasons, and more "I just want to get it over with reasons" :S
Spoilers up to 4.18 under the cut, with lots of ranting, and mentions of cannibalism, murder/death, and lolcanon.
1. Michael. Sad to say, this season is making me really not like him. The first half of the season, with getting the cards, was ok. Michael and co. were thrown into another impossible situation that forced them to do things they didn't want, Michael was up to his usual mastermind thing. And while it was lacking some of the show's original spark, I could deal, because the warehouse scenario had good fic potential (putting aside time constraints and the fact that it seems like they got five cards in maybe a week?). But after Self double-crossed them, Michael became really unsympathetic. I just don't buy this revenge business. What happened to Michael being sensitive to the pain of others? Why put Lincoln and LJ at risk and go to Miami to try and get Scylla? I understand his desire to bring down the Company, but at the risk of his family's lives (not to mention the deaths of other passersby, like the truck driver). It's so contradictory to everything Michael stood for the last three seasons!
Also, most LOLtastic moment. What even, Wentworth? XP
"The ocean is your front yard!"
2. Lincoln. Woefully underused. It's interesting that Dominic has first billing, yet the show's gotten to be all MichaelMichaelMichael. I get that Wentworth was the "breakout star", had more mainstream appeal, etc., but how can a show about two brothers shove one of them so far off to the side? It was nice seeing hints of protective big brother!Lincoln at the start of S4, and Lincoln's looks when people doubted Michael, like he's saying "don't underestimate my brother". But in the later half, he's left saying "I'm gonna kill you" to just about everyone. It reeks of lazy writing. Dom in a suit though! UNF.
3. Lincoln and Michael backstory. WTF IS THIS SHIT? I can't believe that the writers were that lazy/incompetent that they mess up the backstory so royally! I mean, WTF IS THIS PICTURE?!
Did the writers completely forget that Lincoln said in "Rendezvous" that Michael and Aldo had never met? All the references to Aldo leaving the family before Michael was born? And how about the fact that Michael and Lincoln's ages seem to change within the same episode?. I think it was 4.16 where Michael makes a reference to not seeing his mother for 25 years, then Lincoln said it was 21. Except that earlier in the season, Lincoln tells Sara that Michael had "just turned 31", which would've made Michael either 6 or 10 years old when their mother "died". And I'm pretty sure there was a reference in 4.17 to Michael being 12 when he lost his family (when talking about the "family" picture, then the psychiatrist mentions not having that two years later). So frustrating. And to add even more confusion, the original script for the pilot sets Michael as 26 years old. I don't care; my headcanon is always going to be that Christina died/"died" when Lincoln and Michael were 15 and 11, respectively.
I think they did a good job casting little Michael and Lincoln though. I love little Michael's smile, and it's so easy to picture him looking up and hanging onto his big brother's every word :)
And of course there's the liver cancer retcon. I knew that Michael was going to get sick, but up until Lincoln brought up the brain tumor, I thought he was going to have liver cancer. I figured the nosebleeds were from vitamin K and coagualant deficiencies? But then they had to go and make it a brain tumor. SMH. Characters don't need to have super-rare diseases in order to provide drama.
4. Lincoln backstory. I don't like it. My headcanon was that Lincoln, despite all his past crimes, had never been a murderer, or intended to kill anyone, before Steadman (and even after, Linc's kills were in self-defense). But the flashback definitely made it seem like Linc and Derek did the job with the intent to kill. IDK I might need to watch it again to sort out my thoughts on this.
5. LJ. I miss him. And I wish we'd seen more of Linc worrying about him. Give me ALL the protective!Lincoln!
6. Sara. Wow, did she get boring fast. I did like that they addressed Sara's addiction in 4.04 (although IDK if the writers forgot about her overdose in S2, or if they were only counting alcohol for her sobriety?). But after that, it was again, just MichaelMichaelMichael. The theme of S4 seems to be "we've changed so much!" but Sara willing to kill Lisa? And the whole discussion with her comparing Michael and Frank's obsessions. She should realize that this is not healthy behaviour for Michael, even if he has a "noble" goal? And now she is pregnant and just. Ugh. There were so many opportunities in the warehouse for Sara to connect to other people, anyone at all other than Michael! Yet all we got was Michael and Sara, and it's not that it's an anti-ship for me (although I don't ship it, I can see it, although not how they're doing it in canon). But I want Sara to be more than "Michael's girlfriend". I mean, there's so much history between the group members, you'd think they'd be talking more?
7. Mahone. Also woefully underused, IMO. I like his friendship with Lincoln, but I think Bill and Wentworth have a lot more chemistry, and I would've like to have seen Mahone and Michael do more awesome planning.
8. Sucre. I feel SO bad for him, always getting dragged into things by Lincoln and Michael, just when he's found a way out. I'm glad he left when he did (although I think he's probably going to come back later? Please don't spoil though!), because I kept worrying that he was going to die. I like his friendship with Lincoln, although I wish it wasn't at the expense of his friendship with Michael. It's still implied that Michael and Sucre are friends, but we see it so rarely now!
9. T-Bag. Oh T-Bag, what did they do to you? Did they think T-Bag was too evil and needed redeeming or something? But it was such a 180 going from T-Bag who killed and ate a man (btw: EW) to "Cole Pfeiffer". I just don't buy it. I don't think that a serial killer like T-Bag would be able to settle down to a "normal" job and life, at least not without a lot of help. And T-Bag doesn't like being reliant on others, and he's impulsive. He wouldn't have lasted a month. And it doesn't even seem like T-Bag's choosing to lay low and wait for an opportunity, like in S3. It feels like the writers are just using him for comic relief now or something, and that makes me so sad. Also, T-Bag would totally know "disembarking", just saying.
10. Bellick. I did like his friendship with Sucre. I think Sucre was one of the guys at Fox River who didn't get into trouble (well, before he met Michael), and Bellick would've liked him ok. So it was nice to see them and get hints that they'd talked about their pasts and time in Fox River. I didn't know Bellick was going to die though! But I guessed it was going to happen once Bellick got to talking about "what have I done with my life" and "call my mom if anything happens to me", etc. It was Manipulating Your Audience 101, but it still worked on me. It's interesting too, that Bellick is only the second death out of the whole conspiracy's body count that Linc feels responsible for, after Veronica.
11. Roland. I found him very annoying and can't think of any redeeming qualities at the moment.
12. Self. It's very hard for me to see Michael Rapaport and not think of Phoebe's bird-killing cop boyfriend from Friends. But as Self, now I also really want to see him get punched in the face. I couldn't care less about his backstory with his wife and (dead?) child at this point.
13. Gretchen. STILL FIERCE. STILL LOVE HER.
14. Krantz. I don't understand how he flip-flopped on wanting Michael killed and then trying to recruit him so quickly? And how he survived his car blowing up with so few injuries. He should at least have some more third-degree burns?!
15. Christina. Interesting that the role of the "good" parent has now been switched. Regardless of his abandonment, Aldo did give his life to save Lincoln and Michael in the end. Christina, who was only spoken of in good terms before, is now trying to kill them.
General thoughts so far: I think S4 would've been much better if they hadn't rushed through getting the cards so quickly and done away with the end half altogether. First of all, Michael's deadlines are just getting ridiculously short! Three weeks to break out of Fox River, then one week for Sona, and then 24 hours for the first card? Another 24 for the ID of the next cardholder? Second, the show could've had more character interaction (especially since these characters had so much history and relationship-building potential!). Second, there would've been a lot less soap opera moments.
This series has SO MUCH MORE in common with SPN than I first thought, including the sudden decline in quality LOL. I am definitely going to have to write up a full comparison meta after I finish S4.
To make up for all that ranting, here are some random gifs:
Wentworth being a dork and joking about Prison Break: Atlantis
Michael gifset to Mike Shinoda's Remember the Name
Mahone's best lines (my personal favourites: the doughnuts and the Sona crime lab. Bill's delivery was absolutely perfect).
Protective!Linc!
Another picture of Dominic from I Choose. I couldn't help but LOL at the unbuttoned shirt. Now I'm wondering if Linc's state of undress was a Dominic thing instead of a Lincoln thing :P
Spoilers up to 4.18 under the cut, with lots of ranting, and mentions of cannibalism, murder/death, and lolcanon.
1. Michael. Sad to say, this season is making me really not like him. The first half of the season, with getting the cards, was ok. Michael and co. were thrown into another impossible situation that forced them to do things they didn't want, Michael was up to his usual mastermind thing. And while it was lacking some of the show's original spark, I could deal, because the warehouse scenario had good fic potential (putting aside time constraints and the fact that it seems like they got five cards in maybe a week?). But after Self double-crossed them, Michael became really unsympathetic. I just don't buy this revenge business. What happened to Michael being sensitive to the pain of others? Why put Lincoln and LJ at risk and go to Miami to try and get Scylla? I understand his desire to bring down the Company, but at the risk of his family's lives (not to mention the deaths of other passersby, like the truck driver). It's so contradictory to everything Michael stood for the last three seasons!
Also, most LOLtastic moment. What even, Wentworth? XP
"The ocean is your front yard!"
2. Lincoln. Woefully underused. It's interesting that Dominic has first billing, yet the show's gotten to be all MichaelMichaelMichael. I get that Wentworth was the "breakout star", had more mainstream appeal, etc., but how can a show about two brothers shove one of them so far off to the side? It was nice seeing hints of protective big brother!Lincoln at the start of S4, and Lincoln's looks when people doubted Michael, like he's saying "don't underestimate my brother". But in the later half, he's left saying "I'm gonna kill you" to just about everyone. It reeks of lazy writing. Dom in a suit though! UNF.
3. Lincoln and Michael backstory. WTF IS THIS SHIT? I can't believe that the writers were that lazy/incompetent that they mess up the backstory so royally! I mean, WTF IS THIS PICTURE?!
Did the writers completely forget that Lincoln said in "Rendezvous" that Michael and Aldo had never met? All the references to Aldo leaving the family before Michael was born? And how about the fact that Michael and Lincoln's ages seem to change within the same episode?. I think it was 4.16 where Michael makes a reference to not seeing his mother for 25 years, then Lincoln said it was 21. Except that earlier in the season, Lincoln tells Sara that Michael had "just turned 31", which would've made Michael either 6 or 10 years old when their mother "died". And I'm pretty sure there was a reference in 4.17 to Michael being 12 when he lost his family (when talking about the "family" picture, then the psychiatrist mentions not having that two years later). So frustrating. And to add even more confusion, the original script for the pilot sets Michael as 26 years old. I don't care; my headcanon is always going to be that Christina died/"died" when Lincoln and Michael were 15 and 11, respectively.
I think they did a good job casting little Michael and Lincoln though. I love little Michael's smile, and it's so easy to picture him looking up and hanging onto his big brother's every word :)
And of course there's the liver cancer retcon. I knew that Michael was going to get sick, but up until Lincoln brought up the brain tumor, I thought he was going to have liver cancer. I figured the nosebleeds were from vitamin K and coagualant deficiencies? But then they had to go and make it a brain tumor. SMH. Characters don't need to have super-rare diseases in order to provide drama.
4. Lincoln backstory. I don't like it. My headcanon was that Lincoln, despite all his past crimes, had never been a murderer, or intended to kill anyone, before Steadman (and even after, Linc's kills were in self-defense). But the flashback definitely made it seem like Linc and Derek did the job with the intent to kill. IDK I might need to watch it again to sort out my thoughts on this.
5. LJ. I miss him. And I wish we'd seen more of Linc worrying about him. Give me ALL the protective!Lincoln!
6. Sara. Wow, did she get boring fast. I did like that they addressed Sara's addiction in 4.04 (although IDK if the writers forgot about her overdose in S2, or if they were only counting alcohol for her sobriety?). But after that, it was again, just MichaelMichaelMichael. The theme of S4 seems to be "we've changed so much!" but Sara willing to kill Lisa? And the whole discussion with her comparing Michael and Frank's obsessions. She should realize that this is not healthy behaviour for Michael, even if he has a "noble" goal? And now she is pregnant and just. Ugh. There were so many opportunities in the warehouse for Sara to connect to other people, anyone at all other than Michael! Yet all we got was Michael and Sara, and it's not that it's an anti-ship for me (although I don't ship it, I can see it, although not how they're doing it in canon). But I want Sara to be more than "Michael's girlfriend". I mean, there's so much history between the group members, you'd think they'd be talking more?
7. Mahone. Also woefully underused, IMO. I like his friendship with Lincoln, but I think Bill and Wentworth have a lot more chemistry, and I would've like to have seen Mahone and Michael do more awesome planning.
8. Sucre. I feel SO bad for him, always getting dragged into things by Lincoln and Michael, just when he's found a way out. I'm glad he left when he did (although I think he's probably going to come back later? Please don't spoil though!), because I kept worrying that he was going to die. I like his friendship with Lincoln, although I wish it wasn't at the expense of his friendship with Michael. It's still implied that Michael and Sucre are friends, but we see it so rarely now!
9. T-Bag. Oh T-Bag, what did they do to you? Did they think T-Bag was too evil and needed redeeming or something? But it was such a 180 going from T-Bag who killed and ate a man (btw: EW) to "Cole Pfeiffer". I just don't buy it. I don't think that a serial killer like T-Bag would be able to settle down to a "normal" job and life, at least not without a lot of help. And T-Bag doesn't like being reliant on others, and he's impulsive. He wouldn't have lasted a month. And it doesn't even seem like T-Bag's choosing to lay low and wait for an opportunity, like in S3. It feels like the writers are just using him for comic relief now or something, and that makes me so sad. Also, T-Bag would totally know "disembarking", just saying.
10. Bellick. I did like his friendship with Sucre. I think Sucre was one of the guys at Fox River who didn't get into trouble (well, before he met Michael), and Bellick would've liked him ok. So it was nice to see them and get hints that they'd talked about their pasts and time in Fox River. I didn't know Bellick was going to die though! But I guessed it was going to happen once Bellick got to talking about "what have I done with my life" and "call my mom if anything happens to me", etc. It was Manipulating Your Audience 101, but it still worked on me. It's interesting too, that Bellick is only the second death out of the whole conspiracy's body count that Linc feels responsible for, after Veronica.
11. Roland. I found him very annoying and can't think of any redeeming qualities at the moment.
12. Self. It's very hard for me to see Michael Rapaport and not think of Phoebe's bird-killing cop boyfriend from Friends. But as Self, now I also really want to see him get punched in the face. I couldn't care less about his backstory with his wife and (dead?) child at this point.
13. Gretchen. STILL FIERCE. STILL LOVE HER.
14. Krantz. I don't understand how he flip-flopped on wanting Michael killed and then trying to recruit him so quickly? And how he survived his car blowing up with so few injuries. He should at least have some more third-degree burns?!
15. Christina. Interesting that the role of the "good" parent has now been switched. Regardless of his abandonment, Aldo did give his life to save Lincoln and Michael in the end. Christina, who was only spoken of in good terms before, is now trying to kill them.
General thoughts so far: I think S4 would've been much better if they hadn't rushed through getting the cards so quickly and done away with the end half altogether. First of all, Michael's deadlines are just getting ridiculously short! Three weeks to break out of Fox River, then one week for Sona, and then 24 hours for the first card? Another 24 for the ID of the next cardholder? Second, the show could've had more character interaction (especially since these characters had so much history and relationship-building potential!). Second, there would've been a lot less soap opera moments.
This series has SO MUCH MORE in common with SPN than I first thought, including the sudden decline in quality LOL. I am definitely going to have to write up a full comparison meta after I finish S4.
To make up for all that ranting, here are some random gifs:
Wentworth being a dork and joking about Prison Break: Atlantis
Michael gifset to Mike Shinoda's Remember the Name
Mahone's best lines (my personal favourites: the doughnuts and the Sona crime lab. Bill's delivery was absolutely perfect).
Protective!Linc!
Another picture of Dominic from I Choose. I couldn't help but LOL at the unbuttoned shirt. Now I'm wondering if Linc's state of undress was a Dominic thing instead of a Lincoln thing :P